1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of television program ratings measurement and more particularly to apparatus for identifying the viewing audience watching TV programs and commercials.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Conventional automatic television ratings monitors include meters to record which channel a TV set is tuned to and the time of day it is so tuned. At a later time, the contents of the log are transmitted to a central computer via telephone lines where local and national program ratings are computed. Conventional meters cannot usually record the composition of the audience actually watching a particular program and cannot discern whether anyone is watching the program or commercials even though the TV set is on and tuned to a particular channel. For this reason, there is a need for apparatus capable of passive, automatic monitoring of the actual viewing audience.
Various meters for automatic monitoring of the viewing audience, otherwise known as "people meters," have been developed by such companies as Arbitron, Nielsen, Audits of Great Britain, Burke, Market index of Finland, and possibly others. Each of these devices requires the active participation of the viewers, and that the viewers must operate push buttons in response to "prompter" signals or when he leaves or returns to watching the TV set. The arrangements for button pushing vary, as do the "prompts" which automatically appear with some of the devices to remind the viewers to push their buttons. However, none of the "prompter" or push button arrangements have been altogether satisfying in audience measuring systems.